What is intelligence activity?
Intelligence activity means any activity directed at Norway for the purpose of collecting information about the political, military or other sectors important to society and which can harm the country’s security, interests and independence. Such activity can be carried out by both lawful and unlawful means. Intelligence activity tends to start lawfully before it moves into the realm of the unlawful.
What is intelligence being gathered about?
Several factors make Norway of interest to other countries’ intelligence services. This applies to, for example controversial issues related to the environment, the management of natural resources, establishing maritime borders, strategy and technology in the petroleum sector, trade and finance generally as well as scientific and technological developments in areas such as aquatic research, underwater technology, arms development, communication technology and pharmacology. Norway’s strategic location and our participation in international operations also make Norwegian security policy interesting for other countries’ intelligence services.
How do intelligence services work?
One of the principal objectives of the intelligence services that are operating in Norway is to recruit people with access to classified or extremely valuable information. Such attempts to recruit are made in the public as well as private sector.
Foreign intelligence officers would also attempt to collect information from people other than those recruited. Such an approach can possibly represent the beginning of an attempt to recruit.
Intelligence services also use various technical aids in their information gathering. This includes various technical devices for bugging telephones, data traffic and other communications facilities.
Trends
Prior to 1990, the intelligence services of foreign countries directed their activities mainly at obtaining military and industrial information about Norway and NATO. This remains of current interest, but the focus is more concentrated on political, economic and technological information as well as refugee-related espionage.
Many people assumed that espionage in Norway would reduce significantly in the aftermath of the Cold War. However, the 1990s saw an increase in foreign intelligence activity in Norway.
Foreign intelligence services currently have more opportunities than ever to contact people to seek information about Norway and Norwegian issues. Part of the reason is that people resident in Norway generally travel far more frequently than before, and that Norway contributes actively as a party in different international forums.
Assessing the intelligence threat
Not all intelligence activity is unlawful. One example of lawful intelligence activity is the collection of information through publicly available sources.
However, there are grey areas where the distinction between lawful and unlawful intelligence activity is unclear. People who are affiliated to official foreign missions in Norway tend to interact extensively with Norwegian society in general and have substantial contact with both the public and private sector. Against this backdrop it becomes extremely challenging to draw a distinction between normal diplomatic activity and activity that is irreconcilable with a person’s diplomatic status.
Intelligence activity is often extremely long-term. This means that counter illegal intelligence work is also long-term and laborious. It is not unusual for work on a concrete case in this area to continue for many years.
The effective prevention of illegal intelligence activity requires an assessment of the extent of the activity directed at Norwegian interests. In order to evaluate the extent we have to get an overview of how many foreign intelligence officers are in the country. Additionally, we must map the activities of intelligence officers, so that we can gain an overview of the information they are seeking and what they are doing to get access to it.